Welcome to an information sharing platform that seeks to provide insightful information, updates and related advocacy initiatives concerning the human rights and humanitarian situation in Zimbabwe to interested international organisations, activists, Student Christian Movements, advocacy networks, governments and the general public. The forum is managed by the Zimbabwe Advocacy Office in Geneva a special project of the World Student Christian Federation and Swiss agency FEPA.

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Women Human Rights Defenders to Unite at New York Global Summit

NEW YORK - September 15, 2011 -- Leading female human rights defenders from around the world are set to arrive in New York for a major summit organized to coincide with the annual opening of the United Nations General Assembly.

Mariane Pearl to appear at human rights summit in New York next week

We Have A Dream: Global Summit Against Persecution and Discrimination will highlight the centrality of women's struggles to the global human rights agenda when it convenes on September 21-22nd. Women of Courage who will be presenting include the writer Mariane Pearl, wife of the Wall Street Journal journalist Daniel Pearl who was murdered by Al Qaeda terrorists in Pakistan in 2001, Rebiya Kadeer, the most prominent advocate for the rights of the Uyghur people in China, Grace Kwinjeh, the Zimbabwean journalist who survived the torture chambers of the Mugabe regime, Jacqueline Kasha, the outspoken advocate for LBT rights in Uganda, Tran Thuy, the Vietnamese writer and former political prisoner, and Marina Nemat, a leading Iranian writer and commentator.The summit will also provide a unique insight into the horrific prison camp system of the North Korean regime through the first person testimony of Kim Hye Sook, who escaped from the Bukchang gulag."Women are the foundation of every family and every community. When a woman stands up to fight for her beliefs, entire families and communities are lifted up," said Mariane Pearl, who will be leading the summit's session entitled Women of Courage: The Struggle for Human Dignity. "By gathering these extraordinary women at our summit, many of whom have directly experienced the hell of imprisonment, solitary confinement, torture and genocide, we are sending a clear message that the right of women to live free from discrimination is non-negotiable.""The rights of woman will be at the heart of the declaration which we will issue at the end of our summit," Ms. Pearl continued.

The We Have A Dream Summit will take place on September 21-22 at the W Hotel, 541 Lexington Avenue, New York, NY 10022.

Organisations

Voice of the People

"When these harbingers of death and destruction are brought to book, when their assets have been seized and when they have been made to face their victims families and face the wrath of those that have suffered, only then will a free Zimbabwe be possible, a Zimbabwe with a Government that is open and transparent, whose only brief is to serve the people and keep their best interests at heart. "